According to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) reported on the 23rd, a USB flash drive containing the personal information of more than 460,000 people in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, was lost on the 21st, including the names, addresses, dates of birth, and relevant information of residents' taxes and living security receipts.
Amagasaki City, located in the southeast of Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, adjacent to Osaka City, has the fourth largest population in Hyogo Prefecture, but has the highest population density in the prefecture, and is now a nakanuclear city (the core city) and a health center (according to the law, you can set up your own health center).
The Amagasaki City Government held an emergency press conference today (23rd), saying that the loss of the USB disk was related to a company that cooperated with the city. The enterprise is entrusted by the municipal government to provide subsidies to families living in poverty due to the epidemic.
On the same day, without the permission of the municipal government, the staff of the enterprise copied the information of the citizens to the U disk for data transfer, and then took the U disk to the restaurant to drink, and then lost the bag containing the U disk. On the 22nd, the staff member called the police and reported the matter to the city of Amagasaki.
According to the Japanese media "Jiji News Agency", the currently confirmed loss of the USB flash drive contains the following: basic resident registration information of 460517 people in Amagasaki City, 360573 resident tax payment information, 82716 special welfare recipients for fiscal years 2021 and 2022, and 86,062 household account information receiving public assistance and child allowances.
The Amagasaki city government said that the U disk set a password, but it has not been able to confirm whether personal information has been leaked to the outside world.
In response to this, the Amazaki City Government apologized and said, "While implementing safety management, we will once again implement the importance of personal information protection and raise the crisis awareness of our staff, and make every effort to restore trust." ”
City officials bowed and apologized for this, pictured from the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)
Kazumi Inamura, the mayor of the city, said: "There is no confirmation of the leak of information at present, but I think the worst-case scenario should be envisaged to deal with it." We will use our website and other means to inform the public of subsequent developments and strive to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. ”
Kimi Inamura, mayor of Amagasaki City, at an emergency press conference, pictured from the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)
The USB stick is suspected to be hung on the afternoon of the 23rd for sale on the Internet
According to Japan's "Kobe Shimbun" news, on the afternoon of this day (23rd), an item called "Amazaki's USB stick" was listed for sale on the flea market app "Mercari", and the seller set the price of the item at 452,600 yen (including tax and freight), but the transaction message was deleted after about an hour and a half.
"Amagasaki's USB stick" product page, screenshot of the Japanese trading platform "Mercari"
Japan's Kobe Shimbun said the "item" was listed for sale around 3 p.m. (2 p.m. Beijing time), a few hours after the loss of the USB stick was first reported. It is worth noting that on the Internet, the population of Amagasaki City is displayed as "452600" (2015 data), which is consistent with the price of the listing of the commodity.
There is currently no information indicating that the item is directly linked to the lost USB stick, but the item describes it as: "This is the USB stick I used in Amagasaki the other day." I forgot my password and can't open it, so I resell it here. ”
It is reported that at about 4 p.m. local time on the 23rd, after the Japanese "Kobe Shimbun" reported that this point, the Amagasaki municipal government realized that the U disk that was listed for sale may be the one that was lost. Currently, the city of Amagasaki is investigating the relationship of the item to the usb stick by checking the appearance and manufacturer of the lost USB stick.
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.